THE NRHS girls’ outdoor track and field team are the 2023 Div. 5 state champions. (Eric Evans Photo)
Hornet girls’ track wins Div. 5 state title
NORWELL — The NRHS girls’ track and field team were crowned the 2023 Division 5 State Champions in outdoor track and field this past weekend at Norwell High School. The accomplishment capped off an undefeated season for the Hornets who were 4-0 in regular season competition, also winning the MSTCA D5 State Relay Championship and the Cape Ann League Open Championship. It was a perfect season.
Based on the season coming into the state championship, the Hornets were the clear favorites, but their performances over the weekend defied expectations as they scored an incredible 125 points to defeat their opponents from across the state.
According to coach Sotirios Pintzopoulos, the team’s performances were good enough to win the state championship across all six divisions in the entire state.
As Pintzopoulos said at the end of the meet, “this team continued to impress me throughout the year with athletes continually improving in strength, speed, technique and mental fortitude. They had so much pressure and expectations on their backs and they continued to press on, not letting any of that hold them back.”
The Hornets were well ahead of runner-up Weston (59 points) and 3rd place Triton (51). Rounding out the remaining top 10 schools were Norton (47), Dennis-Yarmouth (38), Middleboro (35), Norwell (33), Hudson (31.5), Medway (30) and Dedham (29) with 36 teams total scoring at the event.
To kick things off on Thursday in Norwell, Madison Vant and Tiara Lamont competed in the grueling Pentathlon, a five-event competition that runs across five hours of the meet. Athletes start with the 100 Meter Hurdles followed by the High Jump, Long Jump and Shot Put for field events and culminating with a taxing 800 Meter Run. At the end of it all, Vant was first earning a state championship gold medal amassing 3011 points in the event with Lamont finishing 8th with 2271 points and the Hornets earning 11 points as a team.
On the track, Giuliana Ligor added another 10 points with her first place finish in the 400 Meter Hurdles (1:03.73). Her victory marked a back to back championship for her in the event as she was first place at last year’s championship as well. Quinlan Kelly also contested the event finishing 19th in 1:12.40. In the 200 Meters Madelyn Arian Aitchison (28.77) was 25th. Annalise Butler ran an incredible personal best in the Two Mile with a stellar final 400 meters moving up from sixth to third with a time of 11:23.28.
Also contested on Thursday were the Discus Throw and Triple Jump. In the Discus, Abigail Lilley finished in 5th with a throw of 106’ 9”, Sabrina Mini (94’ 0”) had a personal best finishing 10th in the event while Abigail Gerber at 90’ 6” was far from her best in 13th place. The Triple Jump saw Georgia Robarts hit a new personal best mark of 34’ 6.75” for 5th place. Kayla Budny had sustained an injury at a prior meet and was not able to contest the event.
Coming out of day one of competition, the Hornets were in first with 35 points with Weston (25), Triton (21), Norwell (20), and Norton (19) not far behind.
“We had the lead but knew we had a lot of work left to complete” said Pintzopoulos.
THE COACHES of the Hornet girls’ track and field team proudly present the Div. 5 state championship trophy, which they will add to an already full track trophy case at NRHS. Pictured from left to right is Tom Ledoux, Andrew Falanga, Sotirios Pintzopoulos, Joe Davis, Kirsten MacLellan and Ryan Spinney. Missing from photo: Josh Rocco. (NRHS Track Photo)
Due to an equipment issue at Norwell High School, North Reading High School hosted the Pole Vault on Friday, which essentially made the meet a three day event. The Hornets were happy to host and it was from this event on, that the Hornets dropped the hammer and took a commanding lead.
In the Pole Vault, the Hornets took 18 points with a 1-2 finish from Hayden MacLellan (10’ 6”) and Julia DeAngelis (9′ 0”). Hayden’s victory marked the third state championship won at the meet behind Vant’s Pentathlon gold and Ligor’s 400 Meter Hurdle gold and continues a Hornet tradition of Pole Vault state championships running back over a decade. Jenna Mahoney (7’6”) just missed the podium in the event finishing in 10th place.
On Saturday, the Hornets continued to amass points. Ligor led things off on the track with a first place finish in the 400 Meters going 56.31 which is the second fastest time in the state this year and just .4 seconds off of the school record. Ava McIntyre ran a speedy 12.48 seconds in the 100 Meter Final to take 2nd place. Her time in the trials of 12.34 was a new personal best and qualified her to compete at nationals. Hayden MacLellan took 3rd in the 100 Meter Hurdles with a time of 15.31 which was over half a second personal best. Butler took 8th in the One Mile with an impressive season best time of 5:23.01 considering she ran the Two Mile just 48 hours earlier with a huge personal best. The 25 points scored in these events on the track brought the Hornets score to 78 which Pintzopoulos knew was good enough for the victory.
“I calculated going into the meet that no other teams could score more than 50-70 points across the event. So if we got to 70 we should have had enough for a victory.”
Despite that, the Hornets did not settle as they dominated the field events that day.
In the High Jump, Lilley (5’0”) just missed the podium finishing in 9th place. In the Javelin, Vant earned another medal to go with her gold in the Pentathlon with a second place finish of 124’ 4”. Gerber took 4th in the event with a toss of 113’ 6”. Mini also competed in the event taking 21st (81’ 5”).
The Long Jump certainly made the Hornet impending victory clear as McIntyre (18’ 5.25”) and Vant (18’ 4.5”) went 1-2 scoring 18 points for the team. Both of their performances came in the final round as they were sitting in 3rd and 4th place respectively jumping ahead of their appointments by mere inches with their impressive marks. Robarts also nearly placed jumping 16’ 4.75” missing the podium by under 4 inches. The last field event was the Shot Put where Gerber had an impressive 2 foot personal best mark of 34’ 11” which took 3rd place in the event. Lilley (28’ 3”) took 21st.
Wrapping things up for the Hornets were the three relay events. The 4×800 Meter Relay only took 11th place with a time of 10:58.46 but the time was an impressive 30 second improvement from their previous best. The 4×400 Meter Relay also missed the podium finishing in 10th place with a time of 4:23.82. The 4×100 Meter Relay earned the Hornets 4 more gold medals as the team of Madelyn Arian Aitchison, Robarts, McIntyre and Ligor sprinted their way to a first place finish in 49.40 seconds. This was the sixth state championship earned by the Hornets at the event out of a total of 19 contested events.
Up next, several of the Hornets will compete at the Meet of Champions at Fitchburg State University starting today, Thursday June 1 and culminating on Saturday. Look for that story in next week’s Transcript. Competing in the event will be the following athletes: Kayla Budny (Triple Jump), Annalise Butler (Two Mile), Abigail Gerber (Discus Throw and Javelin Throw), Giuliana Ligor (400 Meter Hurdles, 400 Meters and 4×100 Meter Relay), Abigail Lilley (Discus Throw), Hayden MacLellan (Pole Vault and 100 Meter Hurdles), Ava McIntyre (Long Jump, 100 Meters and 4×100 Meter Relay), Georgia Robarts (Long Jump and 4×100 Meter Relay) and Madison Vant (Javelin Throw, Long Jump and 4×100 Meter Relay).
